Sex-abuse boy “sacrificed by RUC as part of dirty war”
Posted By: September 28, 2021
Allison Morris. Irish News. Belfast. July 25, 2014.
THE Police Ombudsman is to be asked to investigate if the RUC could have prevented the death of a vulnerable teenager abused at Kincora Boys’ Home.
Stephen Waring took his own life after authorities failed to act when he and another boy claimed they were victims of abuse in 1977.
The 16-year-old confided in social workers at Rathgael secure home in Bangor, Co Down when he was moved there from Kincora to serve a sentence for petty crime.
Another inmate also told staff he had entered a suicide pact with Stephen Waring after being abused by pedophile Joseph Mains.
The RUC and the Eastern Health Board were informed but no action was taken.
Mains was eventually convicted in 1981 along with William McGrath and Raymond Semple of abusing children in their care after the pedophile ring at the home was exposed by the media.
Confidential reports seen by The Irish News show that Stephen Waring ran away along with his younger brother, who was also in care, after authorities failed to act on reports he’d been sexually abused.
The two brothers were tracked to Liverpool and arrested by Lancashire police and put on a ferry back to Belfast. The RUC met the children at the dock.
But on the night of November 26, 1977, worried that he was to be returned to Kincora, the terrified teenager took his own life by jumping overboard.
His body was never recovered. There was no inquiry into his death, and the RUC did not connect it to Kincora.
British army intelligence officer Colin Wallace said the boy’s death may have been prevented had authorities acted properly when concerns about Kincora were first flagged up.
“The army were raising concerns about Kincora right back to 1972/73 and yet the abuse was allowed to continue,” he said.
“What on earth was stopping the RUC investigating?
“This went right to the very top, we know it was dirty war but to stoop to the level sacrificing the lives and well-being of children is beyond the pale.”
Margaret McGuckin of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse said through the group’s solicitor, she will be asking the Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire to investigate if the death of Stephen Waring was preventable.
She said it should also be considered by a wider British government-appointed inquiry into child sex abuse.
“He is one of the forgotten victims, a lost boy of both Kincora and the Troubles.
“We owe it to him and the other forgotten victims to expose the cover up and finally tell their stories.
“This abuse of this boy was reported to the RUC in 1977 – we want to the Police Ombudsman to find out why this frightened boy was sacrificed.
“This needs investigated by the ombudsman and also should now form part of the Westminster inquiry.”
